Hi Bob - and others - I know most people including Bob realize this - but maybe it's worth saying that not all victims are calm enough, or well enough coordinated, or strong enough, to help flip their boat upright for a T rescue - and it's not at all difficult for the rescuer to do that, even with a fully loaded boat. For such victims, it's best to have them swim to the rescuer's bow or stern (not near the rescuer's cockpit!!) and hang on while their boat is emptied of water. For those of us who don't have a great deal of upper body strength and will be flipping a fully loaded boat, the rescuer edges deeply toward the vic's boat, grasps the **bow** above and below the water - (**not** the toggle - potential of broken fingers!!) and flips it upright. Then the rescuer edges her/his own boat deeply so that the sheer of the rescue boat is in the water and then using his/her boat as a gigantic lever lifts the *bow* of the vic's boat up onto the rescuer's deck. Works every time, and you don't usually have to slide the vic's boat across your spray deck to do it. As has been pointed out on this list many times, it's impossible for the rescuer to flip over in this situation, since he/she has the 16 to 18 foot "outrigger" of the vic's boat supporting her/him. In most cases, only one "levering" is necessary to get the vic's bow out of the water, and at that point most of the water will flow out of the cockpit once we flip the vic's boat upside down and then right it again. For those who haven't tried it, it's surprising how much of the water will drain out with this single "levering". Of course the maneuver can be repeated a couple of times if it's desirable to get more water out of the cockpit. However - in most situations once is plenty, and the best thing to do is to get the vic back into her/his boat as quickly as possible, spray skirt on, paddle away from any danger, and worry about compulsive cockpit emptying later on. I realize that some rescuer's like to lift the vic's boat onto the rescuer's deck until the two boats are almost in the X formation - not good for stability or for the rescuer's spray deck, takes too much time, and is rarely necessary. I wonder if it's a hold-over from older forms of X rescue and T rescue, and/or from boats which had their rear bulkheads placed far behind the aft edge of the cockpit. But even for those boats, one levering will usually empty enough water so the boat can be paddled out of danger. All of the above raises another thought about rescue practices, quite aside from the T rescue itself. It's very helpful during practices to experience paddling the boat when the cockpit is full of water, or nearly full of water. It's great for balance, great for bracing practice (and for more rescue practice...), and it might just be a needed skill some time. Bill Hansen Ithaca NY *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:23 PDT